Partners and other actors involved
PICUM’s
project “Access to health care for undocumented migrants” is
co-funded by the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal
Opportunities) within the framework of the Community Action Programme to
Combat Social Exclusion.
The overall aim of this project is to improve access to
health care for undocumented migrants, a specific group of socially excluded
migrants. This goal will be reached by developing and promoting a system of
reporting on the situation regarding access to health care for undocumented
migrants in eleven EU member states within the framework of the Social
Inclusion and Social Protection Process. The system will be used by NGOs,
local authorities and health care specialists to communicate relevant
information to their governments, to be included in the National Action Plans
on Social Inclusion and in the National Strategies on Health and Long-Term
Care.
The project gathers nineteen partners from eleven EU
member states (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom), representing various interests:
local authorities, responsible for public health and for implementing health
care legislation at the local level; NGOs, representing the demand of
undocumented migrants for health care and giving input on specific barriers;
and health care professionals, having the obligation to provide care to people
requesting medical services.
This project will be carried out in two
phases:
Phase 1
(09/2005 – 09/2006): will be devoted to the identification of problems faced
when undocumented migrants try to access health care services and to the
drafting of a common reporting template. Several working meetings with experts
and partners are foreseen, as well as a research
on access to health care for undocumented migrants in the countries in which
the partners are located.
Phase 2
(09/2006 – 09/2007): will result in a project publication including
policy
recommendations for improving access to health care for undocumented migrants,
general findings from the research as well as the report on the conference
“Access to health care for undocumented migrants through local cooperation
among all actors involved”.
Among the areas of particular interest mentioned by the
European Commission in the call for proposals of the Second Transnational
Exchange Programme of the Community Action Programme to Combat Social Exclusion
2002-2006, it was included “the promotion of the inclusion of immigrants and
ethnic minorities as well as other groups experiencing extreme poverty and
exclusion”.
Notwithstanding this concern as well as the support
that the Commission has granted to PICUM’s project’s purposes, it should be
born in mind that there still exists today the necessity that the Social
Inclusion Strategy encompasses undocumented migrants as one of its target
groups. Undocumented migrants are not yet formally considered as being one of
the most marginalized and socially excluded groups in Europe. Very few documents
of the European Institutions acknowledge this fact and there is almost a total
invisibility of this problem in the different action plans to combat social
exclusion presented by the member states up to date.
This explains why this project seeks to give more
visibility to the problems of marginalization of undocumented migrants arising
from their inadequate access to health, to mainstream the involvement of local
and regional actors in the whole anti-poverty process and to bring the attention
of policy-makers on the necessity of designing a Social Inclusion Strategy that
encompasses one of the most socially excluded groups in Europe nowadays:
undocumented migrants.
The overall aim of this project is to improve access to
health care for undocumented migrants in the EU. This goal will be primarily
reached by:
conducting
a research that helps to identify the legal and practical barriers
encountered by undocumented migrants when trying to access health care in
the different partner countries;
developing
and promoting a methodology for data collection and a system of
reporting on the situation in the EU member states
regarding access to health care for this specific group of socially excluded
migrants within the framework of the Social Inclusion – Social Protection
Process. These tools will be promoted to be used by local actors to
communicate relevant information to be included in the National Action Plans
by the governments;
increasing
the knowledge of local actors about the European process to combat poverty
and social exclusion at
European and national level and raising awareness about the importance of using
this policy channel to combat the exclusion of undocumented migrants
from health services;
building
networks and promoting local partnerships to address the problems;
making
recommendations that
help national and European policy-makers to better address the problems
arising from a lack of or an insufficient access to health care for
undocumented migrants in the EU.
The project is based on a transnational-bottom-up
approach. The project primarily seeks to support local efforts and bring local
expertise to the national and European level. One of the reasons behind this
choice is explained by the fact that it is precisely at local level where the
consequences of an insufficient access to health care are felt directly and,
moreover, where national and European policies are executed. In addition,
experience shows that the problem related to the access to health care for
undocumented migrants requires a global response. The European dimension of the
project has proved to help actors to exchange experience and find support and
inspiration for further action towards social inclusion of undocumented
migrants.
This project gathers nineteen partners from eleven
member states (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). There is a good representation
of interests in the partnership given the involvement of a diverse range of
actors.
Public
authorities: responsible for implementing laws regarding health care at
local level and responsible for public health;
Local
and European NGOs: representing the side of undocumented migrants; and
Health
care providers: having the responsibility of giving medical assistance to
people in need.
Project’s partners are listed per category below:
-
CPAS
(Centre Public d’Aide Sociale de Bruxelles
(Belgium)
-
Primary Care Trust Newham (United Kingdom)
-
Stelle für interkulturelle Arbeit der Landeshauptstadt München
(Germany)
-
Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdienst Rotterdam (Netherlands)
-
Fundación Progreso y Salud (Spain)
NGOs:
-
Menedék – Hungarian Association for Migrants
(Hungary)
-
Jesuit Refugee Service (Portugal)
-
Evangelisches Hilfswerk in Österreich (Austria)
-
Caritas Europa (International)
-
Hospital Punta de Europa (Spain)
-
European Public Health Association
A
high number of other experts in the field of migration, health and the European
Social Inclusion Strategy are also actively involved in the project through
participation in the meetings and workshops that have been organized by PICUM in
Brussels as well as in all project countries.
In
addition to a literature review, the research is based on the project
partners’ input from their relevant field of action and on the expertise of
external experts gathered through working
meetings. Furthermore, field trips to
the partner countries will be carried out in order to complete the information
gathered. The development of a research tool, including questionnaires and a
reporting template, will also serve as a framework for information management
and facilitate further research or reporting activities. The final project
publication and this website will disseminate the research results. The results
will also be presented by PICUM in the final conference that will be held in
Brussels in June 2007.
The
contents of the research are the following:
data and profile of undocumented migrants in the
country concerned;
identification of vulnerable and most-excluded
groups and communities;
main health needs;
estimation of undocumented migrants lacking access
to health care;
health systems of the countries represented in the
partnership;
legal provisions on access to health care for
undocumented migrants in the different partner countries;
implementation and interpretation of relevant
legislation at regional and local level;
practical barriers encountered by undocumented
migrants when trying to access health care;
good practices existing in the country;
relevant projects carried out in the past in the
field of “migrants and health”.
One
of the major actions of the project is the development of a reporting template
conceived as:
a framework for data collection on access to
health care for undocumented migrants in terms of law and practice in all
relevant fields of health care;
a tool for updating and reporting competent
authorities urging them to include information and strategies to combat
undocumented migrants’ social exclusion in the NAPs on Social Inclusion
and the National Strategies on Health and Long-Term Care, respectively.
Several
partners’ working sessions have been devoted to the design and amendment of
the draft template. The development of this instrument counts also with the
input of some experts on data collection about undocumented migrants’ related
issues and of a medical sociology consultant.
The
project draws in the full range of agencies which work at the frontline of
dealing with the health care issues of undocumented migrants. Moreover, in order
to gain a picture as comprehensive and complete as possible during the different
working sessions, the group of partners has been supplemented by a number of
additional key experts in the field of immigration, health and the social
inclusion policies.
A thematic overview of the meetings is provided below:
1)
Inaugural meetings - (I Partner meeting)
§
NGO’s meeting
(Click for agenda and report)
- Date: 21 November 2005
- Place: Brussels
- Number of Participants: 19 (Click for list
of participants)
§
Health care providers’ meeting (Click for agenda and
report)
- Date: 5 December 2005
- Place: Brussels
- Number of Participants: 14 (Click for list
of participants)
§
Local authorities’ meeting (Click for agenda and
report)
- Date: 12 December 2005
- Place: Brussels
- Number of Participants: 12 (Click for list
of participants)
The following objectives, as expressed in the meetings agendas, were
common to all three meetings:
o
to introduce and develop the
objectives and methodology of the project;
o
to build an active network of
relevant field actors and to increase their capacity to understand and
participate actively in the Social Inclusion
Strategy;
o
to gather information on
access to health care for undocumented migrants in the targeted eleven EU member
states;
o
to discuss main features of
the reporting template.
2)
Working session with partners and advisors - (II Partner meeting) (Click for agenda and
report)
- Date: 22-23 May 2006
- Place: Brussels
- Number of Participants: 46
(Click for list of participants)
As described below, this two-day meeting was divided in 5 sessions:
o
Round-table with keynote speakers: “The European
Social Inclusion Strategy and its contribution to the fight against social
exclusion of undocumented migrants”.
o
Round-table with keynote speakers: “Health needs and
barriers to access health care for a specific target group: undocumented
women”.
o
Presentations of project partners’ activities.
o
Round-table with keynote speakers: “Data collection
as a way to influencing policy”.
o
Partners’ working session on the reporting template
and presentation of future project’s developments.
3)
Academic advisors meeting
- Date: October 2006
- Place: Brussels
- Participants:
- Focus: Policy recommendations on access to health
care for undocumented
migrants
4)
III Partner meeting
- Date: 4 December 2006
- Place: Brussels
- Participants:
- Focus:
o
Presentation of research
results
o
Agreement on final version of
the reporting template
o
Thematic study: health needs
of undocumented children
- Date: March 2007
- Place: Brussels
- Participants:
- Focus:
6)
V Partner meeting
- Date: June 2007
- Place: Brussels
- Participants:
- Focus:
o
Feedback and evaluation of
the project
o
Dissemination strategies for project’s results and
publication
o
Future cooperation
Field visits to partner countries
During
the first phase, the project’s personnel have visited all partner countries
with the following purposes:
to disseminate the project’s objectives and
activities;
to get an in-depth knowledge and gather
information about the situation regarding access to health care for
undocumented migrants in the different states, in terms of law and practice;
to collect examples of good-practice at both,
local and national level;
to improve methodology for data collection and
test the project questionnaire and reporting
template;
to identify and broaden the network of relevant
actors within each of the countries (NGOs, hospitals, local and regional
administrations and legal experts);
to identify the national structures and channels
to access the NAPs on Social Inclusion and contacting the competent
authorities and the independent social inclusion experts; and
to organize training sessions on the Social
Inclusion process for the different stakeholders.
The project runs from 1 September 2005 to 1 September
2007. It is carried out along two different phases.
Phase 1 - (09/2005
– 09/2006):
§
Research;
§
Five
partners and experts’ meetings
§
Field
visits to partner countries
§
Drafting
of the reporting tools
Phase 2 - (09/2006 – 09/2007):
§
Press
release: “The invisibility of undocumented migrants in the European Social
Inclusion Process”
§
Four
partners and experts’ meetings
§
Brochure
with policy recommendations
§
Final
publication with research results and the reporting template
§
Final
conference “Access to health care for undocumented migrants through local
cooperation amongst all actors involved”
Table with the overview of main activities per calendar
month.
Project website:
It
will contain a description of the project’s aims, contents and results, the
partners and the project’s financing institutions.
It
will help local actors to communicate relevant information regarding access to
health care for undocumented migrants to be included in the NAPs for Social
Inclusion and for Health and Long-Term Care by the competent national
authorities.
Press release:
It
will bring the attention to the fact that the European Social Inclusion Strategy
is being developed with no consideration at all about the marginalization of
undocumented migrants and the barriers they encounter to access basic social
services in the EU.
It
will contain the research results, examples of good practice in partner
countries, the reporting template and policy recommendations.
Policy recommendations on how to improve access to
health care for undocumented migrants in the EU:
They
will suggest solutions for reoccurring problems, inspire all actors involved,
particularly policy-makers, and raise awareness with a broader public. These
policy guidelines will be disseminated in the project publication as well as in
a separate brochure.
The
conference “Access to health care for undocumented migrants by local
cooperation among all actors involved” will be organized together with
EUROCITIES’ Social Affairs Forum and will take place in Brussels in June 2007.
Experts from all over Europe in the field of health, immigration and the social
inclusion strategy will be in invited to this two-day conference. The main goals
will be:
-
to provide a dissemination platform for the project
results;
-
to open a wide discussion about all problems associated
to the insufficient access to health care for undocumented migrants in the EU;
-
to promote the use of the information tool for regular
reporting;
-
to raise broader awareness on the link between
undocumented migrants and Social Inclusion.
The report of the conference including speakers’ interventions will be published on the website of PICUM in July 2006.